This invention relates to a portable, compact, manually operable device for exercising a person's knees and leg muscles.
It is common practice today to prescribe and schedule a therapy regimen for patients following knee and leg surgery. The reason for this, of course, is that following such surgery, the knee joint typically will have lost a significant amount of flexibility and range of motion. Additionally, the patient's leg muscles oftentimes need strengthening since, immediately after the surgery, generally little or no motion or use of the leg is allowed.
Therapists employ a variety of techniques for enabling a patient to regain a full range of motion and extension of the knee joint and regain strength in the leg muscles including massaging and manipulation applied by the therapist to the patient, and exercising and stretching to be carried out by the patient alone. A number of devices, mechanisms and apparatus have been proposed for use in facilitating knee and leg rehabilitation, some of such devices being disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,114,610, 3,000,632, 4,463,947, 4,637,379, 4,509,509, and 4,599,996. Although some of the apparatus disclosed in these patents and elsewhere would apparently accomplish the desired knee and leg therapy and rehabilitation, such apparatus typically is also complicated in structure, cumbersome and costly.